Say Something
by Lefty36
Summary: Shortly after their kiss at the wedding Brandon and Callie's feelings for each other run high. But when Steph and Lena find out and send Callie and Jude away. Will Callie find her way back to Brandon, or will they just fade away?
1. Chapter 1

**_I am really exited about this Brallie (Brandon and Callie) fic. I hope you enjoy!_**

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Jude, my baby, my only reason for staying in this system was gone. Missing would be the better word. He slipped off into the night, leaving nothing behind. Though I knew where he went; he went to the Fosters for comfort. They showed us kindness and love when no one else would and I messed it all up. Jude refuses to talk to me anymore and he pushes me away whenever I try to hug him in the middle of the night to stop his nightmares. We both loved them, Jesus, Mariana, Lena, Steph, and Brandon. Well I loved Brandon just a bit more than a foster sibling should, and it was those feelings that brought Jude and I here. To the Dummel's.

At first they looked relatively normal, Mr. Dummel was about six feet tall with dark brown hair that was slowly receding towards the top of his head. Small streaks of gray and white showed their faces on the back of his head. His small beady eyes bore into mine as we stood on his door step, "Are you Callie?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes." I responded looking him in the eyes and pulling Jude closer to my side. Normally he would try to resist my touch but the man scared him as much as he scared me.

"Then you must be Jude." He softly said, looking at Jude as if he was the long lost son he never had. "My name is Mr. Dummel but you can call me John if you want."

Jude didn't respond, he simply nodded his head once. I could almost see the tears in his eyes as we walked into our new temporary home. Their home was cozy and welcoming, love seemed to have been poured into the concrete molding. "Hey bud, why don't you go into the kitchen and meet the rest of the family?" he offered Jude.

"Ok." Jude said semi-happily as he detached himself from my side and ran into the kitchen. I started to follow him, I hated Jude being out of my sight when we went to the foster homes. But Mr. Dummel grabbed my arm and yanked me back with surprising force for a man in his early fifty's. "Now you listen here missy. I have seen your file and I know about the two incidents, and the only reason my wife and I decided to take you was because Jude wouldn't come without you. But I will have you know now that if you ever do anything we don't approve of you are out of here. Got me? You, not Jude. Jude can stay. But if you cross the line even once then you are outta this house and on the streets." He menacingly warned. "You understand?"

"Yes." I responded, trying to sound tough and unaffected by his warnings. The time I spend with the Fosters had weakened my tough outer shell.

"Now let's go meet the rest of the family, shall we?" he asked with a vile smile. I nodded and we walked back in time to their eighty's themed kitchen. Jude was seated on a bar stool munching on a freshly made chocolate chip cookie talking to a gray haired woman. "Hi, I'm Mrs. Dummel." She said with a smile. "Here dear sit down you look tired." She politely suggested as she pushed me onto a bar stool, "Here have a cookie, you are too thin." As we sat and ate cookies Mrs. Dummel told us about everything from her husband to the house.

And as I sat on the bar stool in the eighty's themed kitchen I could only wonder what Brandon and the rest of the gang were up to. I wondered if they missed us, and if they wish they hadn't given us away. Brandon especially plagued my thoughts, his off-green eyes that always knew when something was wrong, his strong arms that held me in my weakest moments, and his pale pink lips that touched mine for a single moment.

"Callie, Callie, Callie!" A familiar voice jolted me back to the present. "Are you ok dear?" Mrs. Dummel asked sweetly.

"Oh yes I'm fine, I'm just tired. Where do I sleep?" I asked her.

"Oh it's upstairs to the left, John, John come up here and show Callie where her room is." She yelled.

A few mumbled curses later Mr. Dummel trudged up from the basement to which he had escaped and motioned for me to follow him. We walked up the steep never ending stair case and at the top a narrow hallway and three doors awaited us. "Now the one on the far left is mine, the middle one is the bathroom, and the one on the far right is the one that you and Jude will share." He said with a warning glare.

"Ok thank you." I managed to choke out. Did this man honestly think I would ever attempt to be in romantic relationship with my own brother? Wow I guess once you accidentally have relationships with two different foster brothers you automatically become some creepy pedophile that dates their brother. I walk into the room and see my thought verified. The room was split in half with a collapsible wall. There was only a small opening in-between the real wall and the collapsible one in which I would be able to see Jude. A quick look into his side of the room showed a beautifully decorated sports themed room with a bench seat window that looked out into the backyard.

My side was set up similarly, except it had a small window that I would just barely be able to squeeze through and the wall was decorated with a single 'hang in there' kitten hanging from a tree poster. I looked back at the doorway to see that Mr. Dummel had slipped downstairs and I could hear his booming voice yell and laugh. Jude's cute laughter could be heard as well, and that's all that mattered to me… wow I guess I can see why someone would look at my thoughts and think pedophile, but it mattered to me in a sister/motherly way.

After messing up the almost adoption I vowed to do anything to make it up to Jude, and if that meant dealing with these hostile people then I would do it.

Dinner passed by slowly with hostile glances from Mr. Dummel almost begging me to speak so he could reprimand me for breaking some unknown rule like saying more than three vowels in a sentence or something along those lines. Even Jude looked awkward and out of place, though most of the conversation was about him and his interests. He didn't share much though, he said that he liked sports and that's about it. I knew he had seen his room and the setup reminded him of rooming with Jesus. Something that he missed dearly and would probably pretend that I was Jesus and that we were back at the Fosters every night.

After washing the dishes I escaped to my room and fell onto my bed. Jude was downstairs watching the football game with 'John'. I closed my eyes tried to fall asleep, today had been a long horrifying day and my mind was exhausted. The last thing I heard before I drifted off into the dream world was 'John' bidding Jude a good night. The dream world dragged me into a nightmare.

I was trapped in the same room; my jail cell. The cold, hard bars froze my hands as I clung to them. Salty tears ran down my face, I should be stronger but I couldn't. Laughter surrounded the cell, slowly suffocating my senses. A splitting pain hit me in the back of the head and I dropped to the ground, still clutching the bars. Slowly I pried my eyes open and saw him. Liam. "Hey sweetheart, you miss me?" he asked in a mocking tone.

Horrified I tried to back away from the bars but my hands were stuck gripping them. They were growing colder by the second, producing a chill that went straight to my bones. Paralyzed by fear I looked into his blue eyes, my mouth agape. "Come on now dear, you love me. You kissed me just a few days ago." He continued. My eyes clouded with confusion.

Then he slowly transformed into Brandon. Down to the very last detail, the dark brown hair, green caring eyes, and the smirk that was saved just for me. "You see sweetheart, we are the same." Brandon spoke in a demonic chant. "When will you learn that no one will ever love you." Suddenly more voices joined the chant, Lena, Steph, Mariana, Jesus, and Jude. They continued, "When will you learn that no one will ever love you, you're better off dead." They repeated the phrase until it was stuck playing in my head. "No one will ever love you, you're better off dead…"

I backed away from the bars and fell back onto the ground. My eyes shot open, my breathing heavy and my face tearstained. The comforting sight of my white, carpeted floor awaited me. Shaking I slowly stood up, my knees knocking against each other, and looked at the clock. 6:30 AM; well there's no way I'm going to get back to sleep, I thought.

A few minutes later I slowly walked over to the crack in the wall and looked into Jude's room. He was sleeping peacefully. The words echoed in my head, "No one will ever love you, you're better off dead." Jude's scrunched up face seemed to say the words. As if he knew I was looking into his room.

I walked backwards till I hit my bed and quickly curled up into a ball in the center. As if Liam/Brandon was a monster hiding under my bed waiting to attack. Silent tears slowly slid down my face and I let them fall on my bed, leaving a small wet spot on my lilac sheets. And I played there, clinging desperately to Zuko, the small panda pillow pet Brandon had won for me at the fair. Brandon, even thinking his name sent waves of longing and pain through me. Even though being in his arms for that single moment, his lips on mine for that single moment had gotten us in trouble I still liked him. Like, liked him. He would be the one that would hold me and softly rub my back until I fell asleep in his arms, and the one to wake me up with a gentle kiss.

As I played in my bed I thought of the moment Steph and Lena found out about us. It was a few days after the wedding, Steph and Lena had decided not to go on a honeymoon so they could stay home and take care of us. Jude had refused to talk to me, answering my questions in curt monosyllabic responses. I was sitting on the couch in the living room writing in my guilt journal about the kiss when I saw Brandon enter the room. He looked at me and tugged on his ear, our signal for I need to talk. Then he disappeared up the stairs. I waited a few minutes then stood up to go upstairs. Jude saw me and rolled his eyes but said nothing. I knew he had talked to Brandon about us and how we couldn't be together but that wasn't going to stop Brandon. As soon as I walked into his room he wrapped his arms around me and whispered in my ear, "It's so hard to see you sitting down there like nothing happened a few days ago. Did you miss me?" He finished with a small peck on the lips.

"Yes, but Brandon we can't do this. It would ruin Jude and my chances of having Steph and Lena adopt us. They already offered and Jude is so excited. He already hates me for kissing you and I don't want him to hate me anymore." I said with all the courage I could muster.

"Callie, no one has to know about us. We can keep this a secret." he replied and proceeded to kiss me before I could respond. Soon I was pressed up against a wall and we were French kissing like there was no tomorrow. When we finally detached I saw Brandon's tomato red face and two others. Two that I never would have thought I didn't want to see. Steph and Lena.

"What in the heck is going on here?" Lena asked surprised.

Brandon looked at them and his face turned ghost white. Then he answered, it's not what it looks like."

"Well" Steph said semi-mad, "It looks like you two foster soon to be actual siblings were making out."

They both looked at us disappointedly. I could feel the shame radiating off of me, "Ok I know that this is really bad. And I know that you can't possibly adopt me now, but please, please adopt Jude. He deserves to be with a family that loves him." I pleaded.

"Moms please believe me, Callie tried to stop this. I don't know how much you saw or heard but I was the one that pushed Callie to do this. Please don't blame her for my stupid mistake. "He pleaded.

"Well we will have to talk about this situation, but until then you two will be in separate rooms and if you even attempt to get together we will be forced to take Callie and Jude out of this house." Steph threatened.

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Steph POV:

"Babe what are we going to do about this?" I asked Lena as we entered our bedroom.

"I don't know, I mean; what do you do when your son falls in love with his foster soon to be actual sister?" she sank into the new bed my mother had gotten us as a wedding present.

"Well we can't have them live in the same house, who knows what will happen if they are alone in the house?"

"Steph, don't forget this is Brandon we are talking about. He would never do anything he thought was wrong." She tried to tell me.

Why of course Brandon would try to date this girl. She is a beautiful person, on the inside and out. Much better than the other girl he had dated, she was a real life Ursula with Ariel's voice. Part of me was happy for Brandon finding someone he loved, but another part. The logical part, told me that it was incredibly wrong and that Callie deserved to be adopted not forced to be alone just so her and Brandon could date.  
"Well Lena, Brandon really loves Callie. Didn't you see it in his eyes? He wants to be with her she is trying to deny her feelings for it. If we keep them in the house together then that would just torture them. And if we separate them, then it would only hurt them for a little while before they got over it." I tried to suggest.

"What are you suggesting?" Lena asked.

"You know what I am suggesting Lena, I hate to make this decision. I know we wanted to adopt her but maybe it would be best if we didn't adopt her?" I voiced my suggestion. Lena looked back at me with disbelief and an awkward silence filled the room.

With a sudden burst of anger Lena replied, raising her voice to a quiet yell, "How dare you suggest that. You didn't see how sad and dejected Callie looked when I picked her up from Juvie, and you didn't see how much she loves being here with Jude. We can't be Indian givers, we can't just give her our love and take it back the one time she messes up."

"This isn't the first time though, don't you remember the time Brandon was almost shot just because Callie had the great idea to go and save her brother? That turned out great didn't it? It gave us another mouth to feed and another back to clothe. Lena, babe, I know you love them and all but you like to take in kids as like they are stray kittens. We need to stop, we were happy with having Brandon and the twins and all that adding Callie and Jude to the mix has done is brought us misery. That is something we don't need in our lives right now." I replied equally as angry. "We knew that Callie was trouble from her record with Juvie, I am afraid to say that we couldn't fix her. We couldn't save her from herself."

Tears poured down Lena's face as my words hit home, she knew I was right but didn't want to admit it, "Well Steph…. I guess if it is the only way to save Callie from herself and our family from misery. I guess we can…" she couldn't finish her statement.

"I know it is hard Lena, but we have to do this and since Callie won't stay in one spot unless Jude is with her we will have to find someone to adopt both of them." Lena crawled across the bed and buried her face into my shoulder. Violent sobs escaped her. While comforting her I tried to think of a world without Callie and Jude and it was a dark and dreary place, and to think it was the world that I would soon be returning to. I let a small tear fall down my face, but I couldn't cry like Lena was. I was the strong one and the strong one can never cry. Even though on the inside I was a wreck of tears and used tissues on the outside I was calm, cool and collected. "We can tell them tomorrow." I mumbled into Lena's hair as I turned out the light.

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I overheard the conversation while getting ready for bed, "I can't believe that I am going to mess up Jude's one shot at happiness." I mumbled to myself. I have to leave, I thought, I can't ruin Jude's one chance at a happy life. He will get over me leaving once they adopt him, maybe he will learn to hate me and never want to see me again. The thought pained me but I knew if Jude hated me then it would be easier to have a clean cut from this life and start anew. I started planning my departure as I slept, it was going to be hard to get away from this place… not physically but emotionally. But I will have to do it, to give Jude a better life.

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**_So what did you think? Pretty please with sugar and other candy items on top leave a review telling me your thoughts on this because I would love to know. _**

**_Until next time,_**

**_Tessa _**


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning I started gathering the materials I would need, toothbrush, clothes, hairbrush, and fifty dollars that I had saved up from doing odd jobs around the neighborhood. "Hey Callie, how did you sleep?" Mariana asked at breakfast.

"Fine, and you?" I absentmindedly replied.

"Okay I guess, are you okay? You seem out of it today." She inquired.

"Oh, I'm fine. I just haven't completely woken up yet." I answered as I shoved a piece of toast in my mouth. It was going to be hard to act like nothing was wrong today, and that I had no idea about Steph and Lena getting rid of us. An awkward silence filled the room as we ate until finally Jude and the rest of the gang made it downstairs. "Hey sleeping beauty, glad to see you're finally awake." I teased Jude while ruffling his hair, hoping to get a response out of him. He just looked at me with sad eyes and sat on the opposite end of the table.

Steph and Lena were the last ones to stumble down the stairs, their eyes heavy with sleep and dried tears. Lena was the first to speak, "Good Morning Guys" her voice scratchy from crying. "How is everyone today?" She looked around the table, her eyes only glancing at me and Jude.

"Fine, how are you mom? You look down for the count today." Jesús worriedly replied while getting up to give Lena his seat. She sat with a smile and hugged Jesús, "You are the best thing that I could ever ask for, all of you." She looked around the room again but this time skipped over Jude and I.

Jude felt the atmosphere in the room change, we all did. "There is something we have to discuss with all of you." Steph said somberly. "Due to an incident involving a two people in this household we have been forced to make a tough decision." All eyes were on Steph as she spoke, "Jude, before I continue I just want you to know that we never wanted to make this decision and you did nothing wrong." That was all Jude had to hear, he had heard the speech before.

Tears threatened to spill out of Jude's eyes but he wouldn't let them, his face twisted in a mix of boiling rage and devastating disappointment. The rest of Steph's speech fell on deaf ears as Jude calmly got up from his seat and walked over to Brandon. Then in an act of rage Jude grabbed Brandon by the back of the neck and with surprising force slammed his face into the table. Tears of anger trickling from his eyes, Brandon stood up and faced Jude. Rubbing his forehead he said, "Calm down Jude… violence isn't the answer. Look I know-"before Brandon could finish Jude took a running start and tackled a surprised Brandon to the ground. His body bent in an awkward position leaning against the fridge.

"Jude stop!" I yelled through my tears… when did those get there? But that too fell on deaf ears as Jude pounced on Brandon and started to hit him, "It's all your fault!" he screamed, "You had to mess everything up. Why couldn't you just like Callie as a sister?"

Brandon looked at Jude, not even bothering to wipe the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, "Jude, I know you are upset about the kiss Callie and I shared but that doesn't mean you can go beating people up because you get mad." He tried to defuse Jude. "I love Callie and I would never hurt her, I won't be like Liam."

An angered smirk formed on Jude's face, "Really, you don't want to be like Liam? Well you are. Liam ruined our chance at getting adopted just like you are, sure you haven't raped her or anything but you are robbing her of the opportunity of a happy life. We are a package deal, so you are ruining my life as well." He spat. Everyone in the room was flabbergasted at Jude's cruel words. "Jude" Steph said sternly, "Get off Brandon, now and apologize."

He just looked at her with fire in his eyes and replied, "No. I am sorry Steph but I don't apologize to life ruining jackasses," And left the room. With Jesus's help Brandon stood up and limped over to the table, sitting in the spot Lena had occupied only moments earlier, "Are you okay?" Lena asked rushing over to Brandon from her spot by the sink.

"Yes, I'm fine." Brandon wheezed, "I would have done the same thing if I were in his position."

"That still doesn't make it acceptable." Steph fumed, still surprised at the intensity of the attack. "I never thought sweet little Jude could do that."

"Well," I replied with sarcasm laced in my voice, "You haven't seen Jude when he's told someone doesn't want him anymore." And stormed out of the room. I knew that the whole thing was my fault but it really pissed me off that Steph and Lena decided to break the news over breakfast, they couldn't have waited until everyone was awake. Finally arriving at my- Mariana's room I gathered my few belongings in a small duffle and slowly crept into Jesus's room.

Jude was sitting on his bed, racking sobs escaping his body. "Jude…" I tried to talk to him, "Jude I know that you are mad, and that you hate me right now but we need to leave. They are going to kick us out and I doubt that social services are going to keep us together. I am nothing but trouble to you. So I am going to leave, and I suggest after the stunt you pulled downstairs you come with me."

He looked at me for a few minutes, the tears slowly drying on his cheeks, "I guess we have no choice," he replied, "I'm not going to apologize for what I did. He deserved it" he said with embers of fire reigniting in his eyes.

"I know," I replied and shoved his clothes into a small cookie monster backpack Lena had bought him. "Now let's get going, everyone should be at school or work right now."

We made our way slowly down the stairs, stopping just before the end to see if anyone was still in the house. Luckily for us Jude's outburst this morning seemed to clear the house faster than usual. After a quick stop in the kitchen to grab some canned food and a gallon of water (who knows where we will end up) we made our way out of the house. Only looking back at the end of the driveway to imagine the life we could have had. With tears starting to form in my eyes I said, "Come on, let's get going… standing here won't help us start over."

With heavy hearts we left, walking dejectedly down the street not saying a word. We were too involved in inner thought to communicate in any other way that small smiles or frowns. At the first bus stop we found we stopped, waited, and boarded the bus and let it take us to the furthest place from here.

I wasn't worried about money, Brandon had given us enough to get us food and shelter for the next week at run down, barely in business hotel. He had quit piano lessons a few months back, but kept the money his father gave him. I guess he thought that we would one day run away together and live our fairy tale ending.

If only, I thought, as the cold metal of the bus seat created goose bumps on my arms, I looked over at Jude and saw him staring out the window, looking back in the direction of the Foster's. I wanted to shake him and say that we could never go back but I didn't have the heart to; he needed to grieve the death of a happy life as did I, but I had to wait until we were safe. Even though the loss was resting on my heart like an elephant, the constant pressure almost bringing tears to my eyes. The soothing movement of the bus as it glided over the bumps in the road soon put me to sleep and I slipped into the dream world, a place I am soon beginning to fear.

_The smell of bacon was strong as I woke up in Mariana's room, "Morning Callie, how did you sleep?" she asked cheerfully, leaning over me. _

"_Fine I guess, I had this weird dream that Brandon and I were dating and Jude and I ran away so we couldn't have to go back into the foster system." I responded still groggy, "What time is it?" _

"_Oh only ten in the morning, you slept in Sleeping Beauty." She joked, "We should get downstairs, Mom's said they had something to tell us." She said as she turned and walked out of the room. _

_With sleep in my eyes I stumbled down the stairs after her, almost tripping over the invisible last step. Steph was serving up bacon to the gang when I finally recovered from the near death experience and sat at my usual spot across from Brandon. "Hey Callie," he said with a small intimate smirk, "How did you sleep?" _

"_Just fine." I said avoiding his eyes, "And you?" _

"_Oh I had the best dream last night." He said the small smirk still lingering on his lips, "I was a prince and I had to save a beautiful damsel in distress, she kindly thanked me for my help at the end." _

_The damsel was me, why did it have to be me? "That sounds cool." I said as uninterested as I could, when in all reality I wanted to know how the 'damsel' thanked him for his help. _

_After eating breakfast and cleaning up the dishes Brandon called out, "Hey everyone, I have an announcement to make." _

"_What is it?" asked Jesús, "Are you and your secret girlfriend finally getting married?" he chuckled. Secret girlfriend? I thought, I wonder who that is. Part of me was screaming, you idiot! But I held tightly to the sliver of hope that it was some other girl. _

"_Well actually," he said as he turned towards me, "Callie," he dropped to one knee, "I have loved you since the day you first walked into this house, and I know that you are afraid to let your emotions show but I promise you that I will help you to overcome that fear. You have brightened my life like no one I have never met, and the saying 'You know you're in love when reality is better than your dreams' describes my feelings perfectly. So Callie, will you make me the happiest man on earth and marry me?" he proposed. _

_Everyone in the room was shocked, but in a good way. The typical Romantic Comedy way with wide gasps and tears while they waited for my answer. "Well I…" I stammered nervously, my heart hammering in my chest. When suddenly they started saying, "Callie, Callie, Callie wake up." _

Jude aggressively shaking my shoulder woke me up. He didn't say anything, just a simple worried glance at me. Even if he was mad at me he was still concerned for me. "We should find a map to see where we are headed." I stated looking at the back of Jude's head. "Sure." He replied monotone. Stepping over the obese sweaty old man sitting in the seat opposite me, I walked over to the front of the bus and grabbed a map before the rude, determined bus driver could yell at me for leaving my seat. His face was scrunched up in disgust over the amount of large, sweaty people and the sickening smell of body odor radiating from the bus. He glanced over at me quickly and started to gather a breath to yell at me, but I fled back to my seat before he had the chance.

My plan of looking at the map and figuring out a place for us to go fell through as soon as the grief and misery that weighed down my mind sent me flying into a twister of dreams. "End of the line kid," a gruff voice woke me.

"What?" I asked still groggy.

"I. Said. End. Of. The. Line." He said sarcastically slow, as if I was hearing impaired. "I don't have all day to drive the route again so if you missed your stop, tough luck. Now out of my bus and don't leave any of your shit on it or it's mine."

"Rude ass" I mumbled under my breath as I collected our bags and hobbled off the bus, my leg still heavy from when it had fallen asleep. "Where are we?" Jude asked while rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Well" I said looking at the map, "If I am reading the map correctly, we are a few miles from the border of Mexico."

"New Mexico?" he asked surprised and still groggy, "I thought we would go somewhere in the U.S, not another country. We don't even have passports, or…" he worried.

"Jude," I said slightly shaking him, "Jude, calm down. I have it all covered, I was able to get us passports before we left and we have enough money to live a good life in Mexico." I assured him. He gave me a concerned glance and followed me down the road towards the border.

As soon as I saw that Brandon returned my feelings I had gotten Jude and I passports in case we ever needed to get away. Mom and dad had a friend in Mexico that would have taken us in but the system thought he wasn't responsible enough. His name was Adrián. Adrián would have gotten custody of us but because he was framed for operating a crack house he wasn't a 'good fit'. I had called him last week and he said to come on over, he lived in Monterey, a place he described as a beautiful city in the heart of Mexico. Full to the brim of culture and nightlife.

My feet groaned in complaint as we reached the border of Mexico, the light of the moon shined against the cold black metal of the fence. "Stay by me Jude." I whispered in his ear as we approached the gate entrance. A man with a thick Spanish accent said, "Hello, passports please."

I handed him the passports and held my breath I thought, please… please don't notice the fake passports. "Please continue onto the next checkpoint." At the next checkpoint we paid the toll fee and switched all our money over into pesos. In Mexico we were rich, 2641.44 pesos. Once we were safely past the check points I waved a cab over and gave him the address of a store near 'Uncle' Adrián's house, he said he would be there waiting for us. I felt bad for Jude, this was his first time running away and it was to Mexico. The horrible place full to the brim with gangs and other drugs, or so it is stereotyped. "Go to sleep Jude" I muttered into his hair, "It will be a few hours until we reach Uncle Adrián's house." Not needing to be told twice Jude rested his head on my lap and fell asleep.

A few hours later we turned down a sketchy, unnamed street and stopped at an equally sketchy store. I awoke Jude and paid the cab driver. "Well isn't this place cheerful?" I said trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, it is better than Anchor Beach." Jude sarcastically remarked while scooting closer to me.

"Jude we will be fine, I'm sure Uncle Adrián will be here to pick us up soon." I tried to reassure him and hide my growing fear at the same time. "Now let's go inside the store and get something to eat, okay?"

"Okay." We walked into the store and were greeted by a rather unfriendly looking crowd of men gathered around a knocked over shelf playing cards. Broken light bulbs just barely hung from the ceiling lit the musty room in an eerie glow. One of the men heard our surprised gasp and turned to look at us. His charcoal black eyes stared us down before finally saying, "What are you two doing in here?" He looked down at my not so inconspicuous bulge of money in my pocket.

"We are just waiting for someone." I replied pulling Jude behind me, "We will wait outside, sorry to disturb your game." I said slowly backing out of the room.

"No, stay awhile." One of the men remarked, then turned to his friends and spoke rapid Spanish. I wish I would have paid attention in Spanish class, I thought. Once we were almost completely out of the building the man who spoke first got up from the 'table' and walked over to us. He was a rugged, well-built man with arms covered in sleeve tattoos, an oval shaped head and a sharp, bird like nose.

Stupidly, I stood there looking at his odd facial features while he drew nearer until he was right next to us. With surprising speed he grabbed our arms and dragged us over to the table. "Now, let's talk about that huge wad of cash in your pocket. Where did you get it?" The leader of the group, signified by the look of submission in the other men's eyes, asked.

The table was occupied by eight men, just as rugged as the first man. Playing cards and empty beer bottles littered the table as we were forced to sit down. "What money?" I asked trying to play dumb.

"Don't try to play dumb sweetheart," he mocked, "We both know that you have a pretty penny sittin in your pocket. Now we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way… which do you choose sweetie?"


End file.
